Abdülmecid II

Abdülmecid II was the last caliph of Islam in the Ottoman line, and the only one ever elected by a parliament. He was a son of Sultan Abdülaziz and spent most of his life as a prince under the close supervision normal for the Ottoman family. He was a serious painter, a cellist and a collector, and is better remembered in Turkey as an artist than as a religious figure. In November 1922 the Grand National Assembly abolished the sultanate and sent Mehmed VI into exile. It kept the caliphate, and elected Abdülmecid to it as a purely spiritual office. He took the title Caliph of the Muslims rather than the traditional Commander of the Faithful. The arrangement satisfied nobody. He behaved with more ceremony than the republicans wanted, receiving petitions and appearing at Friday prayers in state, and Muslims outside Turkey began treating him as a rallying point. On 3 March 1924 the Assembly abolished the caliphate itself and expelled the entire Ottoman dynasty from the country. He left by train that night with a small suitcase. The office he lost had existed in some form for thirteen centuries, and no successor has been widely accepted since; Hussein bin Ali of the Hejaz claimed it for a few months and was recognised almost nowhere. Abdülmecid settled in Nice and then Paris, painted, and remained head of the Osmanoğlu family until his death in 1944. He was buried in Medina. His large canvas Beethoven in the Harem, showing a chamber recital in the imperial palace, hangs in Istanbul and is the work he is best known for today.

• Lived: 1868 CE – 1944 CE
• Nationality: Turkish
• Roles: religious_leader, royalty